


Kids with guns taking over

by orphan_account



Category: Cricket RPF
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-16
Updated: 2014-04-19
Packaged: 2018-01-16 11:33:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1345939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shaun has a laundry list of sins but if you ask Mitch, trying to stop him playing the final might be the worst thing Shaun has ever done.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“Are you sure about this?” AT asks Mitch, fingers twitching where they lie. Mitch hopes AT doesn’t chicken out; if he does they’ll be in deep shit.

“No I’m not fucking sure,” Mitch rolls his eyes but otherwise doesn’t move from his position, “But _you_ promised JL you were ready for this so you can’t back out now.” 

“What if I miss?” AT’s foot is tapping now, the beat of some inane pop song that Mitch can’t identify.  It’s distracting.

“Then I’ll kill you myself.” Mitch comments mildly, binoculars still pressed to his eyes as he observes Voges and Sam at the crease.

“You wouldn’t really.” AT’s fingers clutch tighter around the barrel, “Would you?”

“Don’t miss,” Mitch shrugs, ever so slightly but enough to get his point across, “And we won’t find out.”

AT gulps before taking a deep breath and steadying himself. He puts his eye to the scope. Mitch relaxes slightly. At least he won’t be chickening out. They stand in silence, except for the echoing sound of leather connecting with willow on the pitch below them.

“What if they get out,” Apparently AT deals with nerves by asking questions. Not surprising, but annoying. 

“Then we’ve got four more batsmen.” It’s a good thing Mitch has years of practice keeping his voice level at times like these because AT is starting to get on his nerves.

“I don’t like throwing my wicket away.” Mitch wonders if there’s a way to make AT shut up. He gets it; this is his first proper assignment. But that doesn’t change the fact Mitch needs quiet to concentrate. that Mitch has a very specific way of doing things; it’s why he usually does this with Shaun.

Mitch knows AT is intimidated by him, which is why he lets some of the annoyance show in his voice, “Next time don’t volunteer for the job,”

“Right.” AT nods, clearly _finally_ recognising that Mitch wants him to shut the fuck up. “How long?”

This is a question Mitch can get behind. He glances down at his watch. “2 minutes.”

He watches Voges and Sam through the binoculars, all the while keeping an eye on AT out the corner of his eye. He looks jumpy but determined to prove himself. It’s almost cute. 

Still, Mitch thinks as he glances back down to his watch, “45 seconds,” he tells AT, he’d much rather be doing this with Shaun. If only Shaun wasn’t in South Africa right now.

Then again Shaun couldn’t exactly have denied Cricket Australia simply because he had an assassination lined up. Somehow Mitch doesn’t think that would fly with CA; especially since the WACA board has gone to great lengths to hide the fact the Western Warriors moonlight as assassins.

Mitch isn’t entirely sure how long the Warriors have been doing this. He doesn’t know if it was during his dad’s time or not, since his dad refuses to say. He just remembers Shaun sitting him down when he was 14 to explain. To explain to Mitch the double life the Warriors led; to give Mitch a choice. 

It’s obvious what choice he made. 

“10 seconds,” he tells AT, who looks through the scope; aims the sniper or whatever it is he actually does. Mitch has never bothered learned the terminology.

“5,” Mitch watches carefully as Hazlewood starts his run up. Takes a deep breath. The ball leaves his hand. “Now!” He barks.

AT pulls the trigger as the echo of ball connecting with bat echoes around the WACA stadium, drowning out the sound of the shot.

“Did you get him?” Mitch has to ask, clutching the binoculars in his hands.

“Yep.” AT sounds shaky, everyone does after their first couple of kills, but not like he’s going to pass out or something. That’s always a plus. Sam’s first attempt ended up with him passed out in a pile of vomit. Twice in one day.

“Great,” Mitch allows himself to crack a grin as AT starts to pack the rifle away in sure sharp moves. Silence falls, and not for the first time Mitch misses Shaun. Usually at this point they would be  bantering and arguing to distract themselves from what they’ve done. Nothing normalises murder like arguing with your brother about who’s uglier.

Once AT has packed everything up, the two of them descend  the stairs, stripping their grey clothes that camouflage them as they go. There’s a bin at the bottom of the steps where they drop the camouflage gear and AT leaves his gun, before they step out the bottom of the floodlights now wearing their whites.

“How do we get down from the floodlights?” Mitch remembers that was one the first thing Ash Agar had asked upon finding out about the Warriors' second job, “Do we like camouflage ourselves in grey clothes and rappel down or something?”

JL had shot him one of the most deadpan looks Mitch had ever seen and said, “We could do that. Or we could just use the stairs.”

It’s something Shaun likes to tease Ash about every now and then. They did start using camouflage clothes up in the lights not long after that though, which Voges insists is something that had been planned for a long time. Mitch reckons he’s probably just bitter an 18 year old newbie thought it up before him.

“Alright guys?” JL asks them as they re-enter the change rooms. “Did it all go to plan?” What he actually means is, did you murder the target or am I going to have to murder you.

“Relax, it went fine.” Mitch tells him, throwing himself onto one of the benches next to Duff. “Only missed once and everything.” 

JL turns narrowed eyes on AT who has to hurry to explain he didn’t miss, tripping over his words. Mitch just laughs. North shoots Mitch a disapproving look but he’s always disapproving, ever since Mitch and Shaun caused a bit of a scene getting a mark at a South African club. The WACA board had managed to spin it as them getting pissed but no one had been happy. In their defence it was hardly Mitch’s fault that their former coach, Lachie Stevens, had fucked up and told them the mark was fatally allergic to peanuts when it was really only a mild allergy. Really they should have been thanking them for being able to think on their feet and get the job done at all.

 “I don’t see why a sniper was even out best option,” Beery complains from the corner closest to the door, where he’s outfitted in the flattering 12th man’s vest.

“Because it’s what the client specified,” JL explains as if he’s talking to a small child. Then again this is the first rule of assassin club, “If they want someone asphyxiated with a teddy bear, we do it, if they want a mark to suffocate on vodka then we do it, and if they honest to god want someone to die after tripping on a banana peel then we’ll fucking make it happen.”

Now that would be a fun challenge, Mitch reflects, trying to kill someone with a banana peel.

“Well then our client is a moron,” Cam volunteers his opinion snarkily. He’s probably still bitter about another duck, Mitch thinks. A legitimate duck, not being forced to throw away his wicket so an assassination can go ahead as planned. “Not like there are many snipers hanging around in Perth.” 

“Not many of our clients are exactly geniuses,” Dorff points out calmly. He’s sitting cross legged in the middle of the change room again, which is an inexplicable habit he’s developed on assassination days, or Ass Days as Ash started calling them, with all the maturity of a 19 year old. 

“They’re smart enough to contact us, and we’re smart enough to not get caught. That’s all you need to worry about.” JL tells them sternly, effectively ending the conversation, “We have a cricket match to focus on.”

 

 

 

Missing out on games suck because, first and foremost, Mitch is a cricketer. The assassin thing is a way to earn a bit more money, to stay with the Warriors and because he doesn't really know anything else. Mitch likes his life in Perth and he’d rather not have to relocate to Sydney. Unfortunately they all have to missing games at some point. Sometimes Mitch has to fake a side strain and miss a game and a half. He hates it, especially when they end up losing both the games - not that he’s vain enough to believe he would have made a difference, but it’s still hard for him to swallow. 

Instead of getting on the Plane to Canberra he comes back to Perth in order to poison a visiting dignitary. Not enough to kill straight away, instead the objective is to make it look like a natural illness. It’s a pretty standard poison job, one that any of the Fury girls have the knowledge to do, so Mitch isn’t sure why he has to miss a game and a half for it.

On second thoughts, he has an idea. And he’d bet a week’s worth of interesting kills that Shaun is behind it. Especially because it’s the game against NSW he’s forced to miss. He can’t argue with JL, especially in front of the team, so he does what he’s asked. 

His actual involvement in the assassination is quick. A couple of days planning in conjunction with JL whilst he’s in the sheds ‘injured’, a phone call or two with Shaun to iron out some sticky details, and a shitload of time going over a ton of research North had given him.

The act of poisoning the mark takes less than half an hour. Then he has nothing to do. He can’t even train for cricket because as far as the media and general public are concerned, he’s injured. Instead he spends his day watching the really crappy live stream of the game, and his evenings over at Mike Hussey’s house. The fact that Huss is more than willing to train with him in his backyard is a nice bonus

The evening the boys get back Mitch goes over to Shaun’s apartment, bypassing the feeble excuse for security and letting himself in. He’s not surprised in the slightest to find his brother and Huss deep in conversation; after all they haven’t really had a chance for a proper catch up since before the Big Bash as far as Mitch is aware.

“Mitch,” Huss smiles as he spots him . Of course he’s spotted less than a second after stepping into the room; the two of them probably knew the second he entered the building, “Long time no see.” Mitch still isn’t sure he understands Huss’ brand of kind humour, even after 15 years. 

“Yea,” Mitch deadpans, kicking his thongs off in the living area and coming into the kitchen where the two of them are sitting at the tiny room table, “Two days is a lifetime.”

Hussey beams at him, and for the thousandth time Mitch has to wonder how this guy has one of the highest kill counts amongst the Warriors. Then again, he was the guy that trained Shaun, so maybe it shouldn’t be so surprising. He also shouldn’t be surprised there’s a beer sitting on the table waiting for him. 

Sometimes Shaun scares him.

“How’d the job go?” Shaun asks him casually as Mitch takes a seat, despite the fact Shaun damn well knows how the job went.  Mitch would make a snide comment but Huss is here; maybe that’s why Huss is here.

“Fine,” Mitch answers shortly, swinging his chair backwards so it’s only resting on two legs. Huss shoots him a disappointed look, so despite the fact he knows he’s being manipulated he elaborates, “It went fine. Poison administered. Mark’s on his deathbed. No one saw me. No one suspects a thing.”

“Good,” Shaun nods, as if it isn’t news to him. Mitch would think it was insulting that Shaun didn’t trust him, if Shaun didn’t do the same for everyone.

Then, because Mitch doesn’t really want to have the discussion he came here to have in front of Huss, he asks, “So, how was South Africa?”

Huss starts to chuckle and Shaun groans; clearly there’s a story here that Huss has already heard. “I think there has to be a correlation between the name Mitchell and being a reckless idiot.”

Mitch would be offended if Huss and Shaun hadn’t trained him out of his recklessness almost 5 years ago. “I don’t know,” He comments mildly instead, “I hear Mitchell Starc has an IQ above 80.” 

“Maybe I should get rid of you and Midge, enlist Starc instead.” Shaun deadpans with a roll of his eyes. Shaun would never get rid of him though, as much as he threatens to.

“You want to deal with Alyssa when she finds out you’ve turned her boyfriend into a killing machine then be my guest.” Mitch retorts. Then because he actually wants to know what went down in South Africa and they’ve gotten off track he asks, “So what did Midge do anyway?”

“I get having a signature style,” Shaun says with a long sigh, it’s a sound Mitch hears a lot, “Nathan has his garrotte and you have your poison but you’re open to using other methods. Mitchell Johnson is not.”

Mitch cocks an eyebrow, “I can’t imagine assassination with a cricket ball is something that’s practical in many situations.”

“It’s not,” Shaun replies dryly, “It’s not practical or inconspicuous enough. You can hardly do it from long range or in crowded areas. The situations in which it’s the best option I can count on one hand, yet he continues to _insist_ on doing it.”

“Pretty sure we would have heard about a world famous cricketer going on a rampage and killing random people with cricket balls.” Mitch says, unable to stop himself being slightly cheeky. Huss is looking between the two of them fondly. Sentimental old man. 

“Give me some credit Mitchell.” Shaun shoots Mitch a look. Johnson is older than Shaun but Shaun’s been a Warrior, and an assassin, for longer. They have a bit of an ongoing power struggle thing happening. At least Johnson thinks it’s a power struggle. “I managed to convince him that it was always good to try new things. Let him use the cricket ball once or twice.” Shaun pauses before adding, “Bucky Rogers helped.”

Mitch double takes at that, since it’s the last thing he ever expected to hear. “Rogers, not only acknowledged what we do, but he also _helped_?” 

“Yep,” Shaun smiles wryly, “In fact he even covered for us a couple of times.”

Mitch can hardly believe that. Rogers left the WACA wanting nothing more to do with them, so he asks just to be sure, “What happened to the ‘I’ve had a change of heart after ten years and I can’t take all this heartless murder and playing with a bunch of psychos anymore so I’m going to runaway and never look back especially because it’s affecting my ability to get selected for Australia’ bullshit he was spouting?”

“His voice isn’t that high pitched,” Huss finally interjects with a frown. Of course the thing he objects to is Mitch mocking a former teammate. “And just because he doesn’t want to be involved anymore doesn’t mean he wants you guys discovered or dead.”

“He probably doesn’t want us discovered because that would lead to _him_ being discovered.” Mitch mutters under his breath, knowing full well they’ll both be able to hear him. What can he say, he’s Shaun’s brother.

 “It doesn’t matter why he did it, the fact is he did it, and it helped us.” Shaun says as if he hadn’t been livid at Rogers’ parting words all those years ago. Then again Shaun has always been a freak at compartmentalisation, not letting his personal feelings and opinions getting in the way of getting the job done.

As much as Mitch would like to continue slagging off Rogers he knows there’s no point, all it’s going to achieve is upsetting Huss. Instead he lets Shaun change the subject to the match against New South Wales and what they need to do to beat them in the final.

It’s not until Mitch is lying in Shaun’s spare room at two in the morning that he remembers the reason he came over in the first place. 

Fucking Shaun.


	2. Chapter 2

Shaun forces Mitch to stay away from the first two training sessions after the Warriors return from Canberra to keep up the story of his injury. Mitch lasts a day and a half.

 When he rocks up at the WACA thankfully Shaun is nowhere in sight. JL however spots him straight away and frowns, “You’re not meant to be here.” The coach says coming to stand next to him, “If the media find out…”

“The media have no idea how badly injured I’m meant to be.” Mitch rolls his eyes. It’s all well and good how much effort JL, Voges and Shaun put into keeping their cover but sometimes they take things way further than necessary. “I’ll keep it light, I promise.” Everyone here has practice at faking injuries convincingly.

JL meets his eyes and gives him a look that is part sympathetic, part warning, “The media think you might me out for the final.”

“Fuck no!” Mitch exclaims, drawing immediate attention from most of the squad. Well at least their reflexes are up to snuff. “There is literally no reason for that. Unless Shaun’s being a paranoid nutter again.”

 “We might have another job for you.” JL doesn’t get uncomfortable; he was good enough to be put in charge of their whole operation. Mitch knows JL though, has for most of his life, so he can see he’s uncomfortable. Shaun’s clearly behind this.

“One of the girls can do it.” Mitch tells him straight away. He’s not missing another game of cricket for a 30 minute assassination that one of the girls  _already in Perth_  could do. 

He’s well aware that his method of choice is considered  _girly,_ by a lot of people. The boys used to give him shit about it, Beer in particular. He never minded but he vividly remembers Shaun shutting it down. He’d been annoyed that his big brother had to go in to bat for him at the time, but it was also nice to hear how highly Shaun thought of his skills. Plus the image of Beer’s face when Shaun told him his gatorade had been poisoned with Visine had been priceless. “Much more subtle than a baseball bat, isn’t it?” Shaun had asked casually. It’s still one of Mitch’s favourite memories

So his weapon of choice is a girly one, but it also means that he’s usually able to travel with the squad around Australia and not have to miss many games. Except when Shaun intervenes.

“Mitchell.” JL says in that warning way that means ‘don’t undermine my authority in front of everyone even if I did practically change your diapers’.

“Is this one of those ‘bring it up with Shaun’ situations?” Mitch asks. Sometimes he wonders who’s really in charge here, JL or Shaun. JL probably wonders the same thing. JL nods, ever so slightly, but apparently refuses to admit it. It’s a wonder anything ever gets done around here with the size of the egos operating. Not that Mitch would know anything about that. “Where  _is_  Shaun?” He asks, wanting to get this sorted as soon as possible.

“Training with Turner.” Is the reply JL gives him. Something’s telling him it’s not the cricket type of training they’re doing. “So until he gets back you can do endurance training with the boys.” 

Mitch groans, since that’s exactly the last thing he wants to be doing right now, “I’m meant to be coming off an injury. Can’t do that.”

JL smirks at him, in a way that let’s Mitch know he’s going to have to do the bloody training, “Good thing we’ve got a closed session today then.”

So Mitch ends up doing half an hour of endurance training, cursing the fact he decided to come in today when he could be at home marathoning Game of Thrones, before Shaun and AT get back. Unsurprisingly the first thing Shaun does is notice Mitch, and head over.

“What are you doing here?” Shaun asks with narrowed eyes, pulling him off the pitch and into the stands.

“Training.” Mitch answers with a smirk he’s sure is going to annoy Shaun. “And if you tell me the media will know I’m here which will somehow lead to them growing a brain and figuring us out I will kill you. You know I can.”

“You’re not meant to be here.” Shaun crosses his arms over his chest. It’s an intimidation tactic, drawing attention to how strong his arms are, but it hasn’t worked on Mitch since he was about 17.

Mitch mirrors Shaun’s action to show he’s not going to be intimidated and says, “Let’s cut the bullshit and talk about the fact you don’t want me to play in the finals.”

“Of course I want you to play in the finals,” Shaun rolls his eyes like Mitch is being an irrational child. Mitch isn’t the one being irrational here.

“This is about Pat isn’t it? Just like the reason I did the last one was to keep me away from Pat.”

“Don’t be dramatic,” Shaun doesn’t even flinch at his accusation, not that Mitch would ever expect him to, instead explains calmly “You could get in and out much easier than any of the Fury.”

It’s a valid point but they’ve pulled off much harder assignments before. It’s an excuse. “What’s your excuse for this week?”

 “We’re weighing up our options.” Shaun says impassively. Shaun’s poker face is one of Mitch’s least favourite things about him.

“Why are you so determined to keep me away from Pat?” Mitch asks, unable to keep the frustration out of his voice. It’s what makes Shaun’s calmness all the more annoying.

“Are you forgetting the fact you almost killed him not that long ago?” Shaun asks, eyebrows raised. Mitch can’t help his sharp intake of breath. Mitch would  _like_  to forget about that incident but that was probably never going to happen. The least Shaun could do is not throw it in his face.

“It’s not my fault he forgot his water bottle and thought mine were fair game.” Mitch mutters defensively. So maybe he shouldn’t have been carrying isopropyl alcohol in a water bottle, but he didn’t expect Pat to just go through his stuff without asking; none of the other boys were stupid enough to touch anything in each other’s bags.

Shaun cocks an eyebrow at him but doesn’t say anything, “What, it’s just good manners not to go digging round in other guys’ kitbags regardless of whether you’re an assassin or not.” Mitch is not going to take the blame for that. Honestly.

“Dressing room etiquette is all well and good until someone  _dies_ , and people start asking questions about why there was [poison] in your water bottle.” Of course Shaun is worried more about their secret getting out than Pat actually dying.

“Don’t be so melodramatic. No one died. No one’s going to die.” Well people are going to die, Mitch thinks, but he’s not going to be accidentally killing anyone any time soon, “So there’s no reason for me to stay away from Pat.”

“I’m not trying to keep you away from Pat,” Shaun is clearly lying through his teeth. Not that Mitch can tell he’s lying, but based on his actions it makes sense.

“Well then let me play the final,”

“That’s not my call to make,” Shaun reminds him with a cocked eyebrow, “It’s JL’s.” That may technically be true but Mitch isn’t stupid, Mitch has been around long enough to know how WACA politics are played.

 Mitch tries to wait Shaun out, force him to admit he’s partially involved, but the only person that strategy doesn’t seem to work on is Shaun; He did learn it from Shaun after all. Instead Mitch cracks and asks, “So why does the media think I might be sitting the final out?”

“JL’s covering all his bases." Shaun explains impassively, as if Mitch is just another one of the ‘kids’ in the squad. “It makes more sense for your injury to be ongoing than for us to have to fake another injury.”

Mitch feels like he’s starting to lose any control he may have had on the situation, “Don’t cover your bases at the risk of my career.”

“Being an assassin is your career.” Shaun shoots back straight away. 

Mitch rolls his eyes; he’s heard that one before, “Don’t be so melodramatic Shaun.”

“Don’t be so naive Mitchell.” Mitch is not naive, he knows he’s a full time assassin, but he considers his career cricket. If he has to kill people on the side then so be it. But Shaun’s eyes are narrowed in the way that means he probably won’t be too impressed with Mitch’s reasoning.

Instead, to get this conversation slightly back on track, Mitch tells Shaun confidently “It doesn’t matter anyway, because I’m over it.” Even if Shaun’s going to pretend this has nothing to do with Pat they both know better. 

“You’re over it?” Shaun asks skeptically, which is hardly a fair reaction. So maybe Mitch was attracted to Pat, but given the circumstances of the BBL it was understandable. 

“We spent so much time together it’d happen to anyone.” Mitch can’t help getting defensive when Shaun uses that tone, which he’s sure Shaun knows, “And before you say anything I mean anyone normal. We don’t all have the superpower of suppressing our feelings like you do.”

“I was actually going to say you spend more time with most of the team than Pat,” At least Shaun has the decency not to play dumb about this, “so it was hardly inevitable. Unless there's something you need to tell me?”

“There’s a difference between spending time together and watching someone every fucking second of the day to make sure they don’t find out they’re playing in a team full of murders.”

“And you did a good job,” Shaun tells him with a teasing grin, “Next season we just need to work on less almost accidentally killing him.” Shaun was being unfair. It was only 4 times, maybe 5. Herschelle Gibbs had managed to almost die 4 times in a week once. “That would kind of defeat the purpose of watching him to keep our operations secret.”

“Yeah, yeah, Cricket Australia wouldn’t be too happy if their future bowling wonder boy mysteriously died, I get the picture.” Despite the fact Mitch is 100% over his little lapse in judgment he’s still quite fond of Pat and would hate to see the kid die. “The point is, now I’m not watching out for him every second of every day I’m over it.”

The look Shaun shoots him basically screams that his brother doesn’t believe him but thankfully Shaun doesn’t push it. Instead he continues teasing Mitch, “You were only attracted to him because you were baby sitting him? That’s a bit of a weird kink Mitch, doesn’t sound particularly healthy.”

“Because you’re the poster boy for healthy lifestyle and relationship choices,” Mitch shoots back straight away.

Shaun chuckles at that, “Maybe not the healthiest, but the safest.”

Mitch isn’t sure if has taken his words into consideration or is just trying to distract him, but before he can get the conversation back on track JL is standing at the bottom of the stands, arms crossed over his chest looking very unhappy. “As touching as this looks, do you think you could maybe have family bonding time somewhere else?”

“But nothing brings families closer together than murder.” Shaun retorts straight away, pretty much stealing the quip out of Mitch’s mouth.

Clearly JL isn’t impressed by Shaun’s wit because he tells them pointedly, “You have 2 minutes to join the rest of the squad otherwise  _neither_ of you will be playing on Friday,” before turning on his heel and stalking away.

“You heard the coach,” Shaun shoots Mitch a sarcastic smile, gesturing to where the guys are lining up to run laps, Ash and AT playing a game of jostling each other and causing a rucks. “If you want any chance of playing, you better go run laps.”

“What about you?” Mitch grumbles, even as he makes his way towards the stairs.

“I have some things to discuss with Adam,” Shaun shrugs, with a cheeky grin. Asshole; always managing to get out of training he doesn’t want to do.

“I hate you,” Mitch mutters petulantly as he begins his climb down the stairs towards the pitch.

Shaun doesn’t respond, and Mitch thinks that’s the end of that. But then just as he’s jumping over the barrier onto the pitch, Shaun calls out to him, “By the way,” He says in that voice that means he’s about to tease Mitch with something Shaun knows is going to get under his skin, “Pat wasn’t even at the game.”

 

 

 

 

They arrive in Canberra for the final on Tuesday evening. Mitch has a job with Shaun on Wednesday evening which is fun; or as fun as you can find murdering people with your brother without being a total raging psychopath.

Apart from that they have strict instructions from JL to focus on nothing but the game over the next week. It’s interesting to watch how the team channel their pre-game energy when they don’t have assassination plans to distract them.

North and Voges are sitting together talking about who knows what, Mitch would guess the ridiculous price of WA’s private education system or some other boring parental shit. Dorff is doing his weird mediation crap, Beery, Cam and Rimmo have a deck of cards out, AT and Ashton were honest to god playing a game of chasey outside whilst Sam babysat last time Mitch saw them and Shaun; well Mitch is pretty sure Shaun is always focusing on assassin things even when he’s out at the crease. 

Mitch was distracting himself on his phone but there’s only so much money you can spend on Candy Crush in an hour before it gets ridiculous. There’s still an hour until the toss but they’ve been left mostly to their own devices since this is the time generally reserved for assassinations. 

He decides instead to just go for a walk around the ground or anything to keep him moving that doesn’t involve a game he outgrew when he was 12.

Of course Shaun notices him heading for the exit and asks, “Where you going?”

 “For a walk or something.” Mitch answers shortly. Shaun’s not his keeper. “Release some energy.”

Shaun nods like that makes perfect sense as he walks towards Mitch, “I’ll come with you.” 

“I don’t need a babysitter.” Mitch rolls his eyes but makes no actual move to stop Shaun following him out.

“That’s reassuring, because I have better things to do with my time than babysit you,” Shaun retorts dryly, now holding a phone when he definitely wasn’t a few seconds ago, “I need to call p-” Shaun starts to say before catching himself, “I need to make a call.”

Unfortunately Mitch doesn’t get the chance to mercilessly exploit Shaun’s slip up because someone calls out his name. A voice he recognises.

Glancing over to the direction the voice came from he notices Pat waving frantically and beaming at him.

“Mitch, don’t.” Shaun says warningly. Shaun has no right to tell him to do anything given the circumstances; Mitch ignores him.

Instead he walks over to Pat with a grin, “Pat,” He says in what he knows is a controlled voice, “It’s been a while.” 

“Not long enough” The words are sarcastic and teasing but Pat’s enthusiastic grin undercuts whatever effect he was going for.

“I know, just when I was starting to forget what your ugly mug looked like,” Mitch plays along and he gets closer to Pat, unable to stop the grin spreading across his own face. 

There’s an awkward second where he’s standing right in front of Pat and he’s not sure if he should shake his hand or what, before Pat is pulling him into a hug and saying, “I missed you dumbass.” and oh.

He meets Shaun’s eyes over Pat’s shoulder and can tell Shaun knows; Shaun knew before he did.

He’s not over it.

 


End file.
